It’s Pres-snow-dent’s Day! Spend It Shoveling

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — Four score and seven inches ago … (Get it? Because it’s President’s Day? Just go with it.) Yes, another round of intense snowfall is currently falling with parts of the state anticipating up to seven inches of fresh new fluff.

A couple of inches have already accumulated with the heaviest snow hitting west of the Twin Cities and working its way east. Areas near St. Cloud, Minn. are seeing snow falling at a rate of about an inch per hour. Near Rochester, residents are dealing with about a quarter mile of visibility.

For that reason, no unnecessary travel is being advised by the Minnesota Department of Transportation due to the difficult driving conditions and reduced visibility. The advisory is for Rice, Steele, Dodge, Mower, Freeborn, Goodhue, Olmsted, Fillmore, Houston, Winona and Wabasha counties.

From 5 a.m. to 11 a.m., Minnesota State Patrol troopers were called to 157 crashes statewide, with 22 reporting injuries but none that were serious or fatal. There were also 266 vehicles off the road or spin-outs reported.

In the metro, troopers responded to 84 crashes, with 13 reporting injuries — 71 vehicles went off the road or spun out.

The snow should wind down in the metro around 10 a.m. or so, according to meteorologist Mike Augustyniak. Once the snow moves out, the roads and visibility should improve greatly – and dramatically.

“We’re actually going to get help from the sun to do a little melting coming up today,” he said.

Right around 3 p.m., the snow should be clear with the sun starting to develop. East metro and southeast metro areas will take a little longer to see sunshine as it doesn’t peek out until around sunset.

The intensity of snow will be lighter up and down 35, just south of the Twin Cities but parts of southeastern Minnesota, southwestern Wisconsin and areas of the metro could potentially see six to seven inches of snow when all is said and done.

The good news? We’ll see mostly mid-30s, with some areas seeing temperatures hovering right around 40. Tuesday looks nice and warm as well with highs near 41 and the trend continues through most of the week.